The three most worthless questions to ask a college football coach are: 1) How was recruiting this year? 2) How was spring practice? 3) How’s the team attitude?
The responses are the same every year: Recruiting is going fantastically, spring practice is always more productive than ever … and the attitude invariably is the best it’s ever been.
Realistically, no one knows the true value of a recruiting class until four years later. This once again came to light this week while we were doing research on the current senior class, to be featured in the Aug. 19 edition of Blue & Gold Illustrated.
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Young has been a starting tackle in each of his first three seasons with the Irish.
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Notre Dame followers might remember Charlie Weis labeling that 28-man harvest as a “killer class”, the one he said would return the Irish to national title caliber prosperity. It was not only Notre Dame’s largest haul since 1987 (when 30 players signed), but it was replete with All-Americans such as five-star running back James Aldridge, Parade magazine’s No. 1 tight end in Konrad Reuland, and nine Gatorade Players of the Year in their respective states.
Those nine were offensive guard Matt Carufel (Minnesota), safety Jashaad Gaines (Nevada), wide receiver Barry Gallup (Massachusetts), quarterback Demetrius Jones (Illinois), guard Eric Olsen (New York), running back Munir Prince (Missouri), outside linebacker Morrice Richardson (Georgia), running back Luke Schmidt (Indiana) and offensive tackle Sam Young (Florida) — who beat out Tim Tebow for the honor.
As we know, this class has been ravaged by attrition, with 10 members no longer on the team either because of transfers (including the aforementioned Reuland, Carufel, Jones and Prince), career-ending injuries (Schmidt and offensive tackle Bartley Webb), or personal reasons (Gaines, who left the team in 2008 and is not enrolled for the fall semester of 2009).
But what really stands out is the standard hype that comes each February, where every player often is the “next big thing” or the “next So-and-So.”
Near the end of his career, former Irish head coach Lou Holtz (1986-96) dreaded giving evaluations to the media about incoming freshmen because “every time I say something good, people then make it sound like he’s from the planet Krypton.” Consequently, if the player doesn’t live up to expectations, either the student-athlete is labeled “a bust,” or the coaching staff is criticized as inept.
When National Player of the Year Ron Powlus signed with Notre Dame in 1993, Holtz was already thinking ahead about how he would be inevitably castigated.
“Lord, I can hear it now: We’re not using him right, we’re not passing enough…” said Holtz shortly after Powlus’ signing.
And once ESPN’s Beano Cook projected two Heismans for Powlus (now the Irish quarterbacks coach) after his Irish debut, Powlus was in a no-win situation. Even if Powlus won two Heismans, he would merely be doing what was expected. And if he did not, he would be unfairly mocked.
Let’s be clear on this: We have immense respect for every student-athlete who received a scholarship or has earned the right to wear the Notre Dame uniform. They are a select, elite group.
The hype before they even play a game is what we can do without — yet it is demanded by most of the constituency. For example, let’s look at a few of the comments from the Irish class that signed in February 2006.
Prince was immediately categorized with Irish icon Raghib “Rocket” Ismail because 1) he was assigned jersey No. 25 (same as Rocket) and 2) his speed in practice drills.
“I’m not used to seeing that type of speed at running back,” said Weis of Prince. “When I’m talking speed, I’m talking, ‘Phooo!’ I can’t describe ‘phooo,’ but you kind of know what I’m talking about.”
Prince is now a backup corner at Missouri.
Gaines was linked to an All-America safety and first-round pick.
“The Oklahoma coaches were telling him he might be the next Roy Williams,” noted recruiting analyst Tom Lemming.
If Prince wasn’t going to be Rocket, maybe Oklahoma native George West would.
“When I talked to a bunch of people in the Southwest … the one thing they all come back to me to tell me about, George West, no one could ever cover him,” Weis noted.
Even defensive end Kallen Wade, one of the less publicized members of the class, was aligned with a current All-Pro.
“(Wade) reminds me a lot of a young Jason Taylor,” Weis said. “He looks like him, he plays like him.”
Naturally, because Jeff Samardzija and Maurice Stovall were coming off record-breaking seasons as wide receivers in Weis’ first season (2005), incoming wideouts Robby Parris and Richard Jackson were perceived of the same ilk. After all, both were tall, and Parris was white like Samardzija, while Jackson was black like Stovall.
“He could be a Jeff Samardzija type,” said Rivals.com’s Jeremy Crabtree of Parris.
Hereafter, every Notre Dame wide receiver recruit more than six-feet tall will be compared to Samardzija (see Goodman, John). It’s similar to college basketball, where every white point guard prospect the past 20 years is compared to the “cerebral” Bobby Hurley, who helped lead Duke to national titles in 1991 and 1992.
When asked to describe his style, Jackson, now a backup at Central Florida, noted, “I think I compare to Stovall.”
No one in that 2006 class possessed more of the coveted “swagger” than quarterback Jones.
“Summer of 2006, you will hear a lot from Demetrius Jones,” said the Chicago quarterback product while using the cherished third person back in the winter of 2006.
Today, Jones is a backup outside linebacker at the University of Cincinnati.
The six-man offensive line haul that year — Young, Olsen, Carufel, Webb, second-team USA Today All-America Chris Stewart and center Dan Wenger, a four-star teammate of Young — was ranked as the best in the nation. In the last two years, though, it has been as vilified as any unit in Notre Dame’s history.
Their college careers aren’t over yet, and plenty can still occur. The class isn’t “killer” caliber, but it still can be a fine complementary unit if the offensive line finally jells, cornerbacks Darrrin Walls and Raeshon McNeil reach peak performance, and others such as Aldridge, Parris, Richardson, Toryan Smith, John Ryan and Sergio Brown find a niche in their roles as potential regulars.
Per usual, we’ll only find out after four years.
